Rolls-Royce has started to assemble the 97,000-pound thrust Trent XWB-97 powerplant for the Airbus A350-1000 following the critical design review and prototype demonstration runs of the engine.
Rolls Royce is planning to build initial flight-test engines in a preproduction “factory” not on current Trent assembly lines but as production builds up, RR will integrate the XWB-97 into the assembly flow line.
The engine manufacturer expects to build at eight test Trent XWB-97s during the preproduction phase. Rolls-Royce says the Trent XWB program is “on target,” with only minor tuning of scheduled plans.